CU-Boulder's Guardian Scholars program supports former foster care students

Program provides financial support, community for students who are on their own

By Sarah Kuta, Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
02/15/2014 04:56:35 PM MST

Updated:
02/17/2014 10:05:44 AM MST

University of Colorado senior Steven Bryant calculates the PH level of a variety of solutions during Chemistry II lab in the Ekeley Science building Feb. 7. Bryant is a member of the Guardian Scholars program, which helps foster or kinship care students succeed on the Boulder campus. (Jeremy Papasso / DAILY CAMERA)

There are a few life skills that Steven Bryant had a hard time learning after spending most of his childhood in foster homes around Colorado.

Shaving, for instance, never came easy for him.

It's one of the everyday reminders to Bryant that he's not like many of his peers at the University of Colorado, where he's on track to study neuroscience and graduate in the next two years.

"It's not like anything serious, but I never really got taught how to shave," Bryant said. "It should be simple, no problem. But I'm sitting there for 45 minutes (looking in) the mirror trying to get all the hair off my face."

For many students like Bryant who spend time in foster or kinship care, which is care by relatives or a close family friend, college can be an expensive and seemingly unattainable feat.

Between 7 and 13 percent of students in foster care enroll in college, and around 2 percent of those finish college and obtain a four-year degree, according to the nonprofit organization Casey Family Programs.

By contrast, roughly 30 percent of American adults have a bachelor's degree, according to 2010 census data.

To combat those statistics, CU started a program six years ago to help foster or kinship care students succeed financially, emotionally and academically while on the Boulder campus. Guardian Scholars, which was founded in 1988 by Ron Davis at California State Fullerton, came to CU in 2008 with the help of Val Peterson, wife of then-Chancellor Bud Peterson.

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Since then, the program — through private donations — has grown to help dozens of students pay for college, graduate, find internships and research opportunities and more. The program provides scholarships for CU students who have aged out of the foster care system, but goes beyond that with programming, mentorships, monthly dinners, retreats and more, said Guardian Scholars director Valerie Embry.

"These students are trying to make it and trying to raise themselves, and it's not working well," Embry said. "They need guidance."

There are dozens of reasons why students who spend time in foster care either don't go to college or don't finish college, said Eric Schulz, a Guardian Scholars board member and director of Realities for Children Boulder County, a service association and nonprofit that provides funds for at-risk youth.

In most cases, foster care support services end when a child turns 18 or graduates from high school. Beyond that, the students are on their own for money, food, college, transportation, housing and more, Schulz said.

Not only is tuition expensive, but so is housing, especially in Boulder, he said.

Schulz's organization provides a handful of rooms inside a north Boulder home called Polaris House for Guardian Scholars, who pay rent based on their grades, he said.

In August, CU's Housing and Dining Services began offering 10- and 12-month housing contracts for some campus dorms — a change that makes life easier for students who have grown up in foster care and have nowhere to go over holidays and school breaks.

There are often plenty of one-year or first-year scholarships available for students, but those funds tend to dwindle or go away for the other years of college, Schulz said. For former foster care children, if that money goes away, they don't have parents or other means for covering the costs of college.

Guardian Scholars tries to provide more steady funding for all of a student's collegiate career, and helps the students find other sources of steady funding, Schulz said.

"Traditionally, kids with kinship care, foster care, they bomb out of college," Schulz said. "There's funding often for the first year and then it disappears for the next three, and they don't have families to support them as they go through, emotionally, fiscally, all that kind of stuff."

Program provides community

Former foster care children often don't have anyone looking out for them to notice if their grades start slipping or if they're overwhelmed, Schulz said.

One of the key components of the Guardian Scholars "community" is that the other students, adults involved with the program and community mentors check in with the scholars often, he said.

For many students, that constant contact makes all the difference.

"We've created a community and somebody to notice, to catch you," he said. "To notice when you're doing well, to pat you on the back, to celebrate you and your successes, and also to see you when you're struggling and to stand up and say, 'Hey, what's going on?' Traditionally, these kids haven't had that, and they just disappear off the map and drop out and don't finish."

When CU hosts parents weekend, Guardian Scholars hosts its own version of events for the students so they don't feel left out, Embry said. A few weeks before Thanksgiving last year, the students got together for a potluck dinner at Chancellor Phil DiStefano's house.

Cliff Min, a 26-year-old senior studying software engineering, said he's capable of pushing himself to succeed in school, but it helps knowing that there are other people around to support him.

"I feel like I belong somewhere," he said. "For me, that's helped the most. Feeling like I have somebody that in case I get in trouble, I can go to. The program itself has given me a sense of belonging."

Before holiday breaks, Embry talks with the scholars to hear their plans. Often, the students try to reconnect with their biological families, but can end up disappointed or in an "unsafe place," Embry said. She makes sure they have somewhere else to go or money for transportation, and then she reaches out to them as soon as the break ends to see how they're doing.

The program also includes discussions about life skills such as leadership, saving money and how to make connections in the job market and in the community, Embry said.

"These kids are very resilient," Embry said. "In order to just get to college through some of the tribulations that they've had to endure is huge. But then it's like, OK, they're here, how are they going to go on and how are they going to transition from graduation to something else?"

Alexis Petre, a 23-year-old studying architecture at CU, said she's seen the statistics and knows how rare it is for her and children who grew up in foster or kinship care to graduate from college and lead successful lives.

With the help of the program, she said, they're beating the odds.

"People in our situations, they don't get a four-year degree," she said. "They aren't successful. They don't have a 3.5 (grade point average). They don't have all these good things going for them, and it's very easy for each of us to look at our lives and see where we could've gone down that track of nothing."

Mentors, community connections

The program matches up students with a community mentor so they know at least one person outside of the university setting.

Embry said she often hears from students who are surprised that their mentor got them a birthday present or wanted to take them to lunch, just because.

"People haven't celebrated their birthdays before," she said. "All of a sudden, it's like, 'bam.' This is a population who's had their primary source of protection just obliterated. The students are feeling lost, rejected, thrown away, not worthy of that kind of emotion. They're looking for an extended family, so we create that around them."

Wittenberg sees Petre and Min several times a month, often over lunch or coffee. In the meantime, she texts or emails them often to keep in touch.

Having seen how her own children grew up with parents and a support network, Wittenberg said she wanted to pass some of that along to Guardian Scholars at CU.

Petre and Min often surprise her with the types of questions they ask or the experiences they share. Wittenberg said she's constantly awed by how much they've gone through, and often she learns from them.

"The things they have to say and ask are so deep that I almost have no interest in my food (at lunch)," she said. "They're really interesting conversations, and I'm amazed at these kids. I think adversity has given them a lot. It's also hurt them a lot, but they really are amazing."

'A safe place'

Petre said she plans to graduate in 2015. This semester, she's studying abroad in Barcelona, thanks to the financial support she receives through the program.

When the situation with her biological family became difficult at age 13, Petre moved out and found somewhat of a stranger to become her legal guardian, who was more like a roommate than a parent.

Petre covered her own food, gas, insurance, cell phone bill and other expenses by working three jobs in high school.

Growing up, Petre said people always told her it would be impossible for her to become an architect. College is too expensive, it will take too long, and it just wouldn't happen for her, they said.

Guardian Scholars helped her realize that there are other people out there who grew up in similar situations and were able to finish college and go on to successful careers.

"I never came across anybody in my situation or knew there was help for anybody in my situation," Petre said. "I just always felt independent and alone and I had to do everything myself. I was always very determined that I was going to make it happen. But I don't think I'd be here still if it wasn't for Guardian Scholars and (Embry) and what the program's been."

Through Guardian Scholars and connections she's made through the program, Petre is receiving what equates to a full ride to attend CU.

Without a parent or guardian to co-sign private student loans, she said she doesn't know how she would be paying for school without the financial support of the program.

She's married now, but Petre said she often feels independent and alone compared to her undergraduate peers.

"Even though I'm trying to work on my relationship with my (biological) mom, it's not like I can call her and vent about my day," Petre said. "I don't get care packages in the mail, and I see my friends get them all the time. If I need $20, I can't call my mom up and ask her to give me money. There's no support. No help. There's just nothing. It's little things that everybody just kind of expects or has or has their parents there for."

When another scholar, Jessica Duffield, graduated in December, Guardian Scholars threw her a graduation party so that she wouldn't be celebrating alone.

Duffield graduated with a degree in ethnic studies while raising her 8-year-old son, Detroit.

"He has a lot of energy," Duffield said with a weary smile while Detroit played on a computer in Norlin Library.

All through high school, she got in trouble often and tried living with various relatives, but kept getting kicked out. She was homeless for a while before she got her own apartment at 17.

She held various jobs until she got pregnant with her son, and then decided she needed to go back to school for a four-year degree so she could support herself and her son.

When she became part of Guardian Scholars, Duffield said she was able to let herself relax and open up to other students with similar life stories.

"(Guardian Scholars) is a really safe place here at CU," she said. "For kids like us, it's intimidating. We don't have affluence or a family and so it's just — it's a really comfortable place to be. A lot of us went through hell, and so it's just really helpful to be able to sit and share our experiences, and we have that family bond with each other."

University of Colorado senior Alexis Petre, right, freshman Jesus Ortiz-Tovar and senior Neelah Ali laugh during a dinner to discuss the spring semester at the Dushanbe Teahouse in Boulder in January. The students are part of the Guardian Scholars program. (Jeremy Papasso/ DAILY CAMERA)

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